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Pilots, not computers, should fly planes
As the National Transportation Safety Board begins public hearings on Wednesday into the crash of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 in San Francisco in July, one question is certain to keep popping up: Have pilots become too dependent on computer systems to fly their airplanes? The simple answer is yes. (www.cnn.com) More...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
The Glass cockpit is fine so long as one has electricity for them to operate. It may never occur but sometimes in the back of my mind, the old fashioned steam powered guages with wires can become the saviour of us all simply because it will work if everything else fails and if even that backup fails then we should not have been messing with flying in the first instance.
Well, I will say one more thing, as you mentioned it; I lost my entire panel one time on a 757. I mean just plumb dark. As luck would have it, I was only about 8 miles out on a straight in, VFR final for FSM, our home base. I was hand flying anyway so it was a piece of cake. Can't remember what the problem was but very minor. Had it happened out somewhere and up at an FL somewhere or in wx, it would have been very dicey and my mx chief and/or ATC would probably have been getting a panic call. Sometimes you just got to check that gut and go on. LOL
Sometimes I think you are right... As impossible as it sounds we had one crew for an unknown reason on Take Off Roll lost ALL electrical power 2 times and aborted T/O. FDR confirmed this really happened. All AC and DC. We could not duplicate but replace ALL the Generator Control units and have not had any further issues with this a/c. So yes it can happen... What would have happened if that was an Airbus in flight. How is he going to turn the Flight Controls with ALL Electical power (back up power included) leaves the a/c.
There was another one where a crew lost ALL of his EFIS Screens at night. He was on departure, thankfully it was a clear VFR night and he did a quick ATB. He did have an ISIS but that was it. So yes, there are advantage to Steam Gauges.
There was another one where a crew lost ALL of his EFIS Screens at night. He was on departure, thankfully it was a clear VFR night and he did a quick ATB. He did have an ISIS but that was it. So yes, there are advantage to Steam Gauges.
Well, my 2cts worth and I am outa here; Ain't nothing wrong with a computer or automation of any kid in the cockpit. Over the last 20 years I have seen a lot of it come into being and as a laborsaving tool it was nice. As I said, I saw a lot of it come into being, and I was flying before we had it, and did my best to remember how to fly without it and that is what we all should do. As far as big iron goes, I think the biggest single transition was going to glass panels on the 57/67 back in the day. Had the world stayed with steam gauges on the o7's and the like, there may have been some more familiarity from our learning days. No excuses, just opinion.
I am an old stick and rudder guy with a great love of actually flying an airplane. There is nothing as satisfying as a well executed, hand flown descent, approach and landing. Too bad so many "pilots" have either lost or really never learned these basic skills. This was a concern at American airline years ago and was addressed. Unfortunately it was not followed up on over the years. Enclosed is a fifteen year old recurrent lecture I call 25 minutes of common sense. Take a peek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3kREPMzMLk
It's a shame that all these so-called pilots can't handle a good old stick-and-rudder plane anymore..
You people can keep your glass cockpits and fancy shit... I'll stick to my round gauges and bendix-king IFR stack.